DETROIT
– Back in the early 1950s there were many fewer music radio stations,
and if you didn’t like those that were within range, your only choice
was to shut the radio off and listen to the road, the engine noise and
the splat of bugs on the windshield.

Then
in 1956, Chrysler Corporation stepped up to offer car buyers a new listening
option – an in-car phonograph.

The
players, made by Columbia, were mounted on the bottom edge
of the dash, directly above the transmission hump, and were wired directly
into the car radio. Pressing a button on the front cover of the player
opened it, allowing the turntable to be slid outward. Flipping a switch
on the left side of the player bypassed the radio tuner, and the radio’s
amplifier then could boost the signal from the player while volume,
tone and balance could be controlled by the regular radio knobs.

Bandleader
Lawrence Welk in a '56 Dodge.

There
were a few problems with the idea of a car player that needed to be
solved – besides simply keeping the needle on the record. One of them
was safely operating the unit while driving.

The
player had to be small, so the 7-inch size of the 45-rpm record
was ideal; but using 45s would have meant changing the record every
few minutes, a little risky at highway speeds. To solve that problem,
7-inch records for the player were produced in the new 16⅔-rpm
format (ultra-microgroove) offering up to an hour of playing time per
side and the added benefit of a slower speed that was less likely to
kick up the needle. The records also were easy to load. Moving the tone
arm over the record would start it spinning and, in a few seconds, the
needle would automatically lower into the starting groove. Then the
turntable could be pushed back in and the front cover closed.

Click on the
magazine ad to see a larger version.

If
you ordered the option for your new 1956 Chrysler, Desoto, Dodge or
Plymouth you also received the first six of 42 special platters
available exclusively from Columbia Records.

That
limited availability – which also meant you could only listen
to artists under contract with Columbia – was part of the problem with
the option, which died at the end of the model year.

Chrysler
didn’t completely give up, though. The automaker tried again in 1960.
This time, the unit was made by RCA and played regular 45-rpm records.

You
could stack up to 12 records in the player so that you would not have
to change them every three or four minutes.

An in-dash
eight-track tape deck.

The
unit worked “upside-down”. The tone arm came up to the bottom of the
record. As one record finished playing, the tone arm moved out of the
way, and that record would drop to the bottom of the spindle. The tone
arm then swung back to play the bottom of the next record. This time
the option lasted two years.

What
happened? The records skipped – just like they often did with
the first version – if the ride and the road weren’t smooth as glass.
It was an insurmountable problem.

The
next time customers had a real music option choice in a Chrysler Corporation
car wasn’t until 1968.